Disclaimer: Due to the number of comments that have been received it has been felt necessary to clarify that this trip is in no way based on "The Long Way Round" which the authors of the trip were not aware and nor was it first broadcast of at the time at which this trip was drunkenly conceived. The authors of this trip would like to distinguish their intended trip from the journey undertaken in "The Long Way Round" in that unlike Charlie Borman and Ewan McGregor they are not experienced riders (they have both only been riding motorbikes for just over one year), they are not receiving sponsorship and they will not have a support crew with them at any point on the journey. Just to avoid any further confusion it has been thought that it would be helpful to point out that Tom Horovitch and Peter Caley are both fictional characters and are not famous film stars.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Lappeenranta, Finnish border town - 4200 miles from London

We plan to cross into Russia today at a border point about 30 miles southeast of Lappeenranta. Bureaucratic problems are already upon us. When we bought our third party Russian bike insurance this morning we were told that we do not have the necessary stamp on our visas to enter the country with the motorbikes. We went to the Russian consulate in town and they said that this is not a problem; however, the chap we spoke to then went on to say that we should not mention the abscence of the stamp to the border guards and that he wished us luck in trying to get across the border. Somehow this does not fill us with confidence ...

The Puijo Radio Tower, Finland
The Puijo Radio Tower, Finland. The radio waves from the tower jammed the signal from Peter's alarm remote. We had to push the bike down the hill away from the tower with the alarm going off to get it far enough away from the tower to disable the alarm. Apparantly this is a known fault with Datatool bike alarms. Think twice before buying one, particularly if you live near a radio tower!
The view from the Puijo Radio Tower, Finland
The view from the radio tower
Camping in Koupori, Finland The sauna and lake at Koupori, Finland
Camping in Koupori, Finland (left); the Sauana and the lake at the campsite (right).

posted by Tom and Peter @ 10:06   3 comments

3 Comments:

At Wed Jul 05, 01:45:00 pm BST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Tom,
Good luck with the Russian border crossing - I'm sure you'll be fine.

We're all keeping up-to-date with your adventures on the blog. Glad to hear the moskito hat-net is coming in handy. Cassie says Hi and recommends using either US dollars or a bottle of vodka to get you through the border....

All the best - looking forward to the next installment!

Cheers, Nick P.

 
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